Gods & Monsters
by electric gurrl
Summary: "If I were a zombie, I wouldn't eat your brains; I would only want your heart." — ZombieApocalypse!AU. #TyzulaTuesday. On hiatus.
1. End of the World

A/N: **Some Quick Facts About This Fic:  
** **Chapters** : The Limit Does Not Exist  
 **Pairing(s):** Azula x Ty Lee, Mai x Katara, Zuko x Jin, Toph x Aang, Sokka x Suki.  
 **Rated:** M for mature humor, intense nongraphic violence, blood and gore, sexual themes and strong coarse language.  
 **Notes:** These are just little drabbles existing in a zombie apocalypse AU. Is for #TyzulaTuesday so I'm challenging myself to update weekly. This is shamelessly, shamelessly inspired by my addiction to the app Zombies Run. The chapters will be only 1k to 3k words each (premed leaves me with little time to update something lengthy once weekly) and they all are chronological because I plan to do some plot arcs here and there. Anyway, thank you for clicking and I hope you enjoy the show.

* * *

 **GODS & MONSTERS**

* * *

" _If I were a zombie  
_ _I'd never eat your brain  
_ _I'd just want your heart."  
_ _-Stephanie Mabey-_

* * *

 **I. End of the World**

The bell tower clangs as the gates slowly rise. For a few brief moments as four young women scuttle into the compound, a colony of teenagers and young adults exposes itself to the zombie-ridden wasteland outside of its thick stone walls. Republic City then closes its groaning gates as Azula, Ty Lee, Mai and Katara breathe uneven sighs of relief.

Ty Lee muses with a thoughtful gleam in her protuberant eyes, "Those poor gates. They sound awful. They've been through so much. If those gates could talk they'd say…" She pauses to think before settling on, "'Help, I'm constantly being attacked by zombies.'"

Azula cracks an amused smile that she swiftly erases as soon as she sees that Mai noticed it. She averts her tired eyes as Katara sheathes her sleek katana and grabs Mai by the hand. Ty Lee beams at the cute couple.

"We're really glad to have you back," says Aang brightly, stepping out from the radio building just at the moment that Suki approaches from the main street, prepared to examine the contents of four backpacks.

"Did you run into too much trouble?" asks Suki and Azula shakes her head.

"It was an exceptionally boring supply run. _Dawn of the Dead_ and _Night of the Comet_ made me think that zombie apocalypse malls would be much, much more fun," purrs Azula, smirking.

"I got shot," Mai sharply interrupts, narrowing her eyes for a flicker of a second.

Azula scoffs and snaps, "And our dear paramedic Katara fixed you. Stop whining. Everyone gets shot sometimes."

She gives a smug and decisive nod when finished speaking, as if no one could argue that having a bullet removed from your arm is not something worth bitching about. Katara opens her mouth to snarl something vicious and passionate at Azula, but Mai squeezes her by the wrist to shut her up. They exchange scowls, but Azula tosses her runner backpack at Suki and grabs Ty Lee by the elbow.

"I need a cigarette and a shower," Azula declares, and, again, no one argues with her. After seven months fending off zombies and trying to rebuild society together, they all have learned that arguing with Azula is far from worth the wasted breath.

"Mai and I will handle the debriefing then," Katara announces through clenched teeth.

Suki beckons for the sullen knife-thrower and irate brunette to follow her into the broadcast building.

[X]

Ty Lee sits with her hands folded on her lap as Azula sets two pistols down on the bench outside of the shower. The rusty charms on them jingle as they settle atop the tattered towels.

"Are you going to turn around?" demands Azula and Ty Lee nods, spinning as Azula strips her clothes off and steps into a dilapidated shower that makes one from Camp Crystal Lake sound luxurious. Under the pathetic level of water pressure, Azula asks, "You sounded like you wanted to tell me something when we were in the mall? Was it important?"

"No," Ty Lee lies.

"Oh. Then why waste your time trying to say it?"

"I'm not smart. I never said I was smart," Ty Lee hastily states, trying to steer the conversation as far away as possible from her almost-confession-of-love.

"And no one has ever thought that you were." Azula falls silent as she attempts to wash her hair.

Ty Lee does not exactly know why she loves someone so cruel. Yet, despite Azula's vanity, selfishness, wrath, and all those other ugly words that seem so pretty on a girl like her, Ty Lee has been in love for years upon years upon years. Yet, it has remained secret thanks to the apocalypse and friends.

That secret has begun to weigh heavily on Ty Lee's heart. In fact, she wants to blurt it out right now in this summer camp shower but she knows better. She knows it needs to be perfect because Azula insists that everything in life be perfect or it is not worthwhile. Almost isn't good enough has always been her motto, ever since before the world ended and Ty Lee copied her homework at midnight and what color glitter pen to use seemed like a huge problem, a huge choice.

That all seems so hollow and petty now that choices are always life and death.

Ty Lee waits for Azula to finish showering.

[X]

After Azula and Ty Lee shower, "The princess and her loyal puppy dog at last grace us with their presence," says Katara smoothly as Azula and Ty Lee walk into their dormitory.

Sunlight pours into the cramped room through the solitary dirty window. Katara and Mai sit on one bunk, while the other awaits the two girls stepping into the room.

Azula and Ty Lee do not dignify that statement with a response.

"Are you always such a bitch?" Mai demands of her girlfriend.

"Count on it," teases Katara in response, corner of her lip turned upwards. "But only to people who deserve it."

Mai shrugs.

"I prefer it, actually," remarks Azula as she sits down on her bunk. "The sugar queen thing is so obnoxious. I hate what a sweetheart you are to everyone. Makes me want to retch. This whole vicious snark thing is a grand improvement."

Katara opens her mouth to argue, but then just takes in a deep breath through chapped lips and exhales a frustrated sigh.

Mai breaks the awkward silence that follows by complaining, "Why does no one ever salvage Icy Hot? My quads are killing me. Or making me want to kill someone. Either works."

"Excellent point. Icy Hot is much more useful than the twenty packets of Viagra picked up on the last meds run."

"The oldest person here is like twenty-one."

Ty Lee argues shrilly, "Katara always says not to bother reading the labels."

Mai cannot suppress laughter. It becomes infectious and soon Ty Lee blushes and giggles as her companions cackle.

"That was you?" remarks Mai as soon as she composes herself and becomes cold once more. "I thought for sure, like, Sokka or Zuko or something."

Ty Lee shrilly protests, "There were like five crawlers in there! I'm lucky I wasn't bitten grabbing all those pills."

Mai remarks, "God it'd be an awful way to die. Bitten by legless zombies while salvaging Viagra."

"Shut up." Ty Lee crosses her arms childishly over her chest. Mai fights back a smile.

Katara lies down on her bunk and pulls Mai down to lie beside her.

"Goodnight, ladies."

"I will sleep when I want to sleep, and do not refer to me as a lady."

Katara laughs. "Goodnight, Princess Azula."

Azula purrs smoothly as she leans against the filthy wall, "You think that is a cruel nickname, but I like it."

Ty Lee smiles.

Oh, God, she is too in love for her own good.

[X]

Four drowsy girls stand half asleep in the Communications Tower at the crack of dawn. Aang messes with the controls of the radio, getting it warmed up for the day. Suki and Sokka stand, hovering over a large sheet of yellowed paper that appears to be a map.

"Well, we are sending you to Chinatown. It seems mainly untouched by looters and we need a decent food run," Suki announces, straightening up.

Sokka adds, "I've got a map of the area from before, y'know, the total destruction of society."

"It's in the city, so we all need to be careful. Headcam range doesn't go that far so Aang will be mainly flying blind. Communication is invaluable so Katara will take point," orders Suki, and, as she should have predicted, Azula's lips contort into a snarl.

"Why is Katara in charge?" she demands. "I am far more qualified."

Sokka replies before his girlfriend can say a word, "Well, because, y'know, you're crazy."

"Crazy?" And now it starts. That word. Ty Lee cringes. Mai and Katara exchange a glance. Azula bitterly snarls, eyes smoldering, "Sixteen is pretty young to be a goddamned psychiatrist. What is that? Four years of medical school and another four years of residency? What are you, Dougie Howser?"

Sokka croaks, "I…"

Azula huffs. "Don't call people things, asshole." Pause. "Katara and I will share leadership of this mission."

"Fine." Katara crosses her arms.

"If that is settled, grab your weapons and backpacks and I'll open the gates," says Suki, shooting a glare at her boyfriend. He just shrugs.

Azula seizes her dual pistols, Katara her sword, Mai her throwing knives, Ty Lee the lucky fire axe she grabbed from her high school on the first day of the outbreak.

[X]

After the gates of Republic City open, four girls step out into the brisk air warmed slightly by the rising sun. They adjust their headsets, strap on their backpacks, and mentally prepare for the mission. One must be on edge and ready for a fight at all times these days.

Aang's voice comes to life in the four headsets. "It's the Charlie's Angels!" Pause. "Uh, is that sexist? I hope that's not sexist. You're, uh, the Four Musketeers. There we go."

"I preferred the Charlie's Angels," says Mai dryly into her headset.

Katara gently slaps Mai's shoulder. "He's trying to be polite."

"And I'm just being honest." Mai shrugs as the four girls set out running into the wasteland of a world.

Ty Lee cannot help but steal a glance at Azula's ass as she runs.

[X]

In the middle of the decaying city, the four girls weave through the shadows, away from the packs, heading towards Chinatown. Four zombies approach after a relatively calm run, and the girls snap into action. Katara stabs one through the face, clean out of the back of the skull. Mai throws a knife through one of their eyes. Ty Lee hacks off a head.

And, "How does it keep moving with just those bloody stumps for legs?" Katara lividly demands. "This entire zombie virus makes no medical sense!"

Azula snaps as she shoots the stumbling zombie in the face, "We are aware. You only say that every time we go out."

"Check out this car," chirps Ty Lee, her face pressed against the window of an SUV. "It's got like more ammo in it than a Texas Walmart."

Her companions quickly join her. Mai pries open the car door, Azula puts down the growling zombie trapped in the driver's seat, and they start loading the backpacks with anything they can. This will certainly help benefit Republic City defense.

Ty Lee makes a strangled noise and Azula jumps to face her.

"What's wrong?"

"I've needed glasses all along but I didn't know!" Ty Lee exclaims, turning to the girls, displaying the salvaged pair of hipster glasses on her face.

Mai pokes her finger forward and Ty Lee jumps back, before she snatches the glasses right from Ty Lee's nose. "These glasses have no lenses, dumbass."

Ty Lee pouts.

"I think they suit you," purrs Azula, rolling her shoulders. Ty Lee's heart jumps into her throat. "They make you look smarter and you really could use the boost. And glasses are attractive."

"Thank you," Ty Lee gushes.

Katara and Mai exchange a disgusted glance.

[X]

In the middle of Chinatown, the girls split up into the usual groups (they are more predictable than a Scooby Doo episode when it comes to this). Azula and Ty Lee stand in a store room sifting through bags of rice to find the best preserved ones.

"You're acting weird lately," says Azula, shoving aside a useless and infested bag. "You keep looking away when I look at you. What are you hiding? Did you screw my brother or something?"

Ty Lee takes a breath. She has been waiting for this since she was in middle school, and it has only been more painful since the apocalypse began.

Finally, she speaks up, for the first time in over a decade.

"It's about what I was trying to say back at the mall yesterday," she explains quietly, staring at a seemingly bottomless bag of rice. She cannot bear to look at the beautiful spectre of a best friend beside her.

"Spit it out," coolly orders Azula.

Ty Lee inhales sharply and blurts out, "When this all started, when we were at the high school during the moment the outbreak started… I was gonna ask you out that day. But then we were running from zombies and police and the army and it didn't seem right to ask. And I've been… holding it in for a real long time. I even made you a card 'cause I was scared to tell you how I felt. I don't have it anymore but…"

Azula kisses her, deeply, fiercely, passionately with all of her twisted black soul.

Ty Lee whispers as the kiss breaks, "I love you."

"Shhh," breathes Azula, pressing one rough finger against Ty Lee's lips.

She pulls it away and kisses Ty Lee again. They grab at each other, trying to get closer and closer because nothing is close enough as their lips crush together.

Suddenly, Azula breaks away and shoves Ty Lee to the side.

Ty Lee knew it. She knew Azula would reject her.

Then, Azula shoots the groaning crawler reaching at the two girls. It falls limp and dead, blood and brains splattered on the cracked stone floor.

Azula spins Ty Lee around and pulls her into another kiss.


	2. Tea Party

**II. TEA PARTY**

It's strange how these days cemeteries are one of the few places you rarely find the dead. It is, as Ty Lee insisted over and over for days, the perfect place for a tea party picnic.

Azula sits, her weapons on her lap, her pack draped over her shoulder ready to run at any moment. She waits for Ty Lee to finish toiling over the tea pot and brushes the grass and dirt away from the headstone beneath her.

They at last have executed their first date. It happened today, not far from the settlement, but far enough away that no one can conveniently spy. A cemetery is the perfect place to have a private picnic away from zombies and humans alike.

Azula always preferred the movies and Ty Lee enjoyed going out dancing with her kickass fake ID, but the apocalypse gave few options for romantic excursions.

"I figured it out!" chirps Ty Lee, beaming proudly as she holds up her survivalist tea kit. "Dandelion tea yay! And I even brought a little sugar. Are you happy?"

"Yes," says Azula coldly. She looks down as Ty Lee starts pouring two cups of tea.

The headstone reads in chipped archaic script, 'How terrible it is to love something Death can touch.'

Azula listens to Ty Lee humming as she finishes fixing the tea and twinkies (a very classy party as far as post-apocalyptic dates go). She takes a moment to gaze at her and contemplate the words someone chose to have engraved under their name forever.

'How terrible it is to love something Death can touch.'

Azula hears the zombies groaning desperately in the distance and suppresses a shudder.

[X]

The very next day, Azula and Ty Lee fight zombies together in a dilapidated city square. They stand back to back taking on a horde by themselves, the street so thick with zoms that they can hardly see daylight or the area around them. Decoy duty is the absolute worst kind of runner mission, even for two girls who love violence. Republic City requests their heroism in distracting zombies while the settlement carries out other missions of importance.

"Pick your perfect date," Azula shouts over the groaning, hacking, slashing, spurting and gunshots.

Azula pivots and shoots another zombie in the wretched face.

Ty Lee squints as she hacks off the head of a walking corpse with one eye. "I dunno. July seventh?"

Azula cannot suppress her smirk as she shoots another. "No, I meant your perfect romantic date with me, you moron."

Ty Lee decapitates two more before catching her breath and offering up, "I'd go somewhere you've never taken anybody before. I'd want to get to know you. That's like the main thing you never do, 'cause you're, I mean you're _perfect_ really, but you're not super emotionally available or open."

Azula shoots the last one right between the eyes.

"Well," she purrs, stepping towards Ty Lee, "prepare for your perfect date with your perfect woman."

Ty Lee beams.

[X]

Azula fulfills Ty Lee's wish.

"I love this place," said Azula as they stepped into the lonely, abandoned church in the desolate hillside. Ty Lee stands beside her holding the prairie fire flowers that she picked. "I found it on a solo run a while ago. I was trapped by a horde that came out of nowhere and I only had one bullet left."

Ty Lee asks with wide eyes, "Did a miracle happen?"

"No." Azula scoffs and rolls her eyes at the very notion. "I made makeshift weapons out of whatever I could find and hid out until the horde thinned. I killed the remaining ones and made it back to Republic City."

Ty Lee furrows her brow. "Then why do you love this place?"

"Just wait, wait and look up." Azula smirks to herself, proud of how smooth she has managed to be so far today.

The two girls stand in silence for some time before it at last happens. The sun pours down through the dirty skylight above the large crooked cross and illuminates the room in a thousand colors from the stained glass windows.

Ty Lee kisses Azula softly on the cheek. Azula turns away to hide the blush rushing to her ivory cheeks.

"Thank you for taking me here. Want tea? I did bring my kit."

"I could use hydration before our run back to Republic City."

Just as Ty Lee turns to set up her tea kit, Azula pulls her close and their lips crush against each other.

It is the kind of kiss that makes them know that they have never been so happy in their whole lives.

[X]

Azula is not on a supply run with her usual group today. Suki stuck her on an overnight trip with Zuko and she could not be more furious about it. She does not try to disguise her frustration as she and Zuko outrun zombies and fill their backpacks with whatever supplies they can carry.

As they sit at sundown in the back of a pharmacy behind a well-locked door, Zuko asks teasingly, "Have you been having fun on your little tea party teddy bear picnics with your bestie?"

Azula huffs. "She is _not_ my best friend."

Zuko furrows his brow, contorting his scar into something even uglier than before. "You don't prefer Mai and you hate Katara."

Azula takes a deep breath. She might as well bite the bullet and come out with it now. Come out now. "She is my girlfriend now, ZuZu. I mean, we have yet to put a true label on it but she is the girl I am seeing. Romantically. Physically. With kissing and touching."

Zuko screws up his face in utter disgust. "That's - that's more than I needed to hear."

"I just wanted to make myself clear." Azula crosses her arms.

"I figured you were a lesbian." Zuko laughs.

Azula narrows her eyes and hisses, "What the Hell does that mean?"

"You're just kind of the psycho lesbian trope embodied." Zuko shrugs one shoulder and promptly gets back to work.

Azula scowls bitterly as she finishes the conversation with a cold, "I don't know what that means and I doubt I want to know what it means."

[X]

On the first night of their three day mission out to the city, Zuko shakes Azula awake in the middle of the night. She grabs her weapon and readies it, certain that the locks on the door failed or they missed a zombie somewhere during their sweep or Aang called on the radio about something more important than gathering supplies.

But no. He just has a question for her.

She lowers her gun and stares deeply into his golden eyes. They have little flecks. They can be angry, but they are not as molten as Azula's are.

"Azula," asks Zuko quietly, "do you remember what color our mother's eyes were?"

"Why do you care? She's gone."

"I'm just thinking about it. Jin - Jin is pregnant, Azula."

"And?"

"And I'm terrified. I put two rounds into my father's head six months ago. I don't remember the color of my own mother's eyes or even know if she's alive. What am I supposed to do?"

"Suck it up and raise your child. You have no other choice."

"Do you worry about anything with Ty Lee?"

"Even if I did, you wouldn't know. You aren't on the list of people who are allowed to know things about me. It troubles me that you even know my full name."

"I know your middle name and it is _terrible_."

"Zuko!"

"Blossom. Azula Blossom Shinohai. So classy." Zuko laughs and Azula punches his arm. "Ow!" He edges away from her as he taunts in an Old Testament Alabama-accented preacher impression, "Azula Blossom Shinohai do you take Ty Lee Seokeo as your lawfully wedded wife?"

Azula just scowls and tries to go back to sleep.

[X]

Azula stretches her legs just in front of the Republic City gates. Mai, Katara and Ty Lee stand beside her, ready to go.

"You're headed to the Yao Settlement. We lost radio contact with them a few days ago," says Aang's voice into the headsets.

"That doesn't sound ominous at all," sarcastically sighs Mai, and Katara shakes her head.

"You're the worst," she says, smiling softly to herself. "The absolute worst."

"Oh shut it, Sugar Queen." Mai steps away from her girlfriend and starts off running. The rest of her companions hurry to follow, and soon the group is dashing past rusty cars, zombies and decaying buildings.

Azula eyes Ty Lee for a brief moment before they focus on the task at hand.

[X]

The girls stop in a market to lose a gathering group of zombies on their scent. They don't stop to relax; they start grabbing whatever supplies they think will best help Republic City. Katara seizes more tampons than any human being has ever before shoved into a backpack. Azula snags canned food. Mai goes right for the booze ("It's vital for morale," she dryly insists when Katara questions her.)

"Aaaa! Tea!" Ty Lee grabs the four bottles of sweet tea and shoves them into her bag. She bounces and beams as she moves. "Now we just need treats."

"For what?" asks Mai, puzzled.

"A tea party." Ty Lee dances a little bit in place.

Azula icily explains to the confused Katara and Mai, "She is on a tea party kick. Humor her or I will cut your hair off while you are sleeping."

"Aww, thank you, 'zula." Ty Lee smiles and kisses Azula on the cheek.

They realize simultaneously that it is the first public display of affection for them. It would be obvious even if they were not aware thanks to the look on Katara's face and the odd gleam in Mai's eyes.

"Well, I guess you two really did get together," says Mai.

Azula does not know what to say; Ty Lee is too afraid of Azula to answer.

[X]

They make it only halfway to the Yao Settlement before they reach a goddamned horde of leviathan proportions, snapping and snarling and groaning. The runner girls have to move faster than they have in ages. They bound across the hallway, diving between cars and trying to find a way off, somewhere where they can sweep a small area and barricade themselves in until the zombies leave them be, or the horde thins enough that they can kill the rest.

Finally, they run off the highway exit and find a gas station. Azula runs in first and throws Ty Lee in after her, grabbing her by the front of the shirt. Katara and Mai skitter in and Azula slams the door behind them. Ty Lee and Katara grab a shelf of Slim Jims and Sour Worms and drag it across the floor to barricade the door.

Whoever was here before already boarded up the windows. In the dim light, the young women gaze at each other and wordlessly decide their next move. They split up into their usual two groups and sweep the building for any zombies. Azula puts down one crawler in the bathroom, but other than that, they find themselves in the clear.

Slowly, Azula sits down and the other girls follow suit.

"Well, we're stuck here until they lose our scent. Anyone have a good joke?" purrs the de facto leader.

"Ooo! Ooo!" chirps Ty Lee, raising her hand. "I got one. Why should you never date a cannibal?"

Mai sighs. "Because he only wants you for your body. Come on. That one's ancient."

"Be n _ice_ ," hisses Katara, and Mai rolls her eyes in the general direction of her girlfriend.

"Okay, you were mean to me, now you're gonna have a tea party with me. We need the caffeine anyway, if we're gonna still make it to Yao before sundown," Ty Lee announces, smiling despite the zombies trying to claw, punch or bite their way into the room.

Ty Lee starts moving chairs across the room and sits down in front of a tipped over shelf that could work as a makeshift table. She pats the chairs beside her but no one moves a muscle.

"We're in the middle of dangerous enemy territory. We're not having a tea party," says Mai.

"Oh, come on," Katara insists, gently slapping Mai's shoulder. "Indulge her. Be _nice_ for once. Remember, we're working on being kinder to others?"

Azula scoffs and cackles. "Good luck with that. We became best friends because we're both so cruel."

Katara says smoothly, "I can very easily imagine you three as the high school mean girls. I'm sure everyone was hoping you'd get eaten first."

"Alas, they were not so lucky," purrs Azula.

"Neither was I," Katara mutters in response.

Before Azula and Katara can continue their bitter banter, a gunshot rings out from the back of the room.

"Who the fuck didn't check the pharmacy?" Mai demands as all four girls ready their weapons, face to face with a disgruntled mountain man. Ty Lee does not stand up, but she is still ready for a fight. He must be one of those _survivalist_ types if he made it in a desolate area like this. Those are always the most hit and miss to meet. Some are crazy and paranoid; others are helpful as Hell.

The man fires his gun at the girls again with shaking hands. Okay, wild guess that he is probably one of the crazy and paranoid ones.

"We aren't zombies!" Katara shouts. Mai brandishes her most threatening knife. "Do we look grey to you, sir?"

"Get off my property before you bitches get me killed!" he howls, advancing on them.

"It is four against one," Azula says. "You're outmatched."

"I think I can take four little girls. _Hot_ little girls at that," says the man, withdrawing a knife from his belt. He has a gun in one hand, a knife in the other, and not one of the four girls feels any less confident. They have faced worse.

They move to attack as the man advances further, shouting a wordless battle cry as he wields his knife, but no one gets anything in because Ty Lee stands up and shoves her chair across the floor. It screeches in agony as it shoots across the room. "I am _trying_ to have a tea party with the girl I love!"

 _Smack, pound, crush_.

"You broke his nose!" exclaims Azula, stunned by Ty Lee's sudden strength and power.

"It only takes nine pounds of pressure to break a nose. It's really nothing." Ty Lee punches the man in the gut and he falls to the floor in a puddle of his own blood.

"Damn, Ty Lee," says Mai, eerily calmly for this situation.

"Why have I never seen you do that?"

"Because punching zombies doesn't really do anything. It kinda just makes the situation worse, y'know?"

Mai laughs. _Mai_. Azula simply does not know what to say in response, and so she stands there speechless.

Katara finishes off the bastard by slashing his throat in a smooth, fluid motion.

Ty Lee glances at the two zombies clawing desperately at the window and then at her perfect tea party table in the middle of a temporary shelter.

"Can we go back to the tea party now, please?" she begs.

No one is going to argue with the girl who just threw such a hefty punch over a damned kettle of cheap processed tea and some Twinkies.


	3. Baby Shower

**III. BABY SHOWER**

Ty Lee looks up from painting her nails (with a globby, expired bottle of bright pink polish) the precise moment Azula delivers the juicy gossip about Zuko and his girlfriend. She knows she should have kept it secret, but she does not care.

"Ooo," coos Ty Lee excitedly, "we should throw Jin a baby shower!"

Azula was expecting a _crueler_ reaction from her friends. How disappointing.

"I still don't understand why someone would bring a baby into this world," says Katara with a partial frown etched on her face. "It seems cruel to the infant, to the parents…"

"Okay, how do you even throw a baby shower in the _apocalypse_?" Mai asks, focusing on the important question with the least philosophy attached.

Ty Lee finishes painting her nails and caps the bottle before utterly ignoring her best friend and asking her girlfriend, "Is he gonna marry her?"

Azula coldly replies, "There is no structure of law in the country anymore. Marriage would be pointless."

"Really?" Ty Lee's brow knits, worried to the core that Azula devalues the _love_ portion of marriage so greatly. "I think, if I can say it and stuff and I mean you're right of course Azula but I do think love counts for something even without legal papers and an official ceremony."

"Love," says Azula sardonically, "is worth something. It breeds trust and a positive symbiotic relationship while facing the hordes of the undead and the collapsed dredges of society. Marriage is worthless. End of discussion."

"Discussion ended!" chirps Ty Lee, laughing nervously and blushing bright red.

Katara watches the scene with sheer pity in her protuberant cobalt eyes. She makes a mental note to have a long talk with Ty Lee about healthy relationships later.

This cannot be good for them, even if Ty Lee and Azula have known each other since kindergarten.

[X]

The next day in the blistering sunlight, Ty Lee walks with Katara along the familiar pattern to the nearest deserted, dilapidated town where they often gather supplies. Mai and Azula are on a different mission together and Katara happily grabs her chance to discuss Azula with Ty Lee in private.

"She's toxic, you know?" remarks Katara, plucking a bracelet from the dust.

"Who?" Ty Lee inquires, squinting from both sunshine and confusion.

Katara does not know why Ty Lee would ever need to ask. "Azula, of course. I'm worried about you getting together with her?"

Huffily, Ty Lee states, "Lemme tell you about the day I met Azula, okay?"

"Okay." Katara hopes it will provide at least some insight into the madness.

Ty Lee softly smiles. "It was the first day of third grade. She had this super amazing aura around her, y'know? Like I didn't know that was what it was called at the time but it was _regal_. She was like a princess and I was so jealous of her. At recess, I stole her ring. It was so pretty and gold and I don't even know why I took it because I was never like a klepto or anything. But I stole it and I took it home and I felt like mega guilty."

"As a thief should." Katara smiles.

Ty Lee scrunches up her face. "Oh come on. We're basically thieves now."

"More like grave robbers," jabs Katara.

Ty Lee giggles at the joke a little too loud and for a little too long. Katara once found that annoying, but, over time, it has become rather endearing.

"Anyway, I stole her ring and I got home and I felt awful so, like remember those school directory things back when everybody needed phone books and phones with those super fun cords?"

"I am the same age as you, so yes."

"Right. I looked up her number in the school directory and I called her and told her what happened. She hung up. So, I rode my bike three streets over to her address. I knocked on the door and her cute older brother answered."

Katara cocks an eyebrow. _Zuko_? "Not cute. Kinda weird and angry but go on."

"She came out to get the ring back and a spider fell on my head. I totally freaked out and she just smacked it off of me so brave. Then her mom invited us in to make gingersnap cookies. We were like best friends after that."

"Great example of how you are too sweet and a pushover and obsessive and she is violent and violent and, oh, violent."

Ty Lee harrumphs indignantly and shifts tactics. "Didn't you ever hear the saying that love could be labeled poison and we would drink it anyway?"

Before Katara can rebut the statement, a gunshot fires and they both instinctively hit the deck. Katara grabs a wheelbarrow and flips it over as cover for them on their way down.

"What are we up against?" asks Katara.

Ty Lee peeks above the wheelbarrow shield. "Raiders. Like six or seven of them."

The fight begins in a split second. A shootout in a contemporary ghost town. Ty Lee would find it to be glamorous and romantic were it not for the reality of the bullets flying.

"There are way too many. Did they get backup or something?" Katara asks, cobalt eyes wide. She lifts her gun up facing backwards behind her head and pulls the trigger. Nothing. "Fuck. I'm out!"

Ty Lee glances over her shoulder and sees lackadaisical zombies slowly making their way towards the clash between living, breathing humans. She jumps to her feet and starts running, ready to lure them, dancing between bullets as she hurries. Katara picks up Ty Lee's dropped pistol and attempts something like covering fire (if someone can do that with only a few bullets left).

She kicks over a trash can to draw a few more in and then starts running right towards the people shooting at her. As the zombies grasp for her braid, she dives back beside Katara and lets the raiders absorb themselves in a second, much more pressing battle.

"Come on," Ty Lee says, suddenly noticing the pain in her body from jumping to the ground so quickly.

She grabs Katara with her nonpainful arm and they run as fast as they can away from the clash between zombies and raiders. They run until they can no longer catch their breath and then stop.

Ty Lee says through clenched teeth, "I'm in a lot of pain."

"That's understandable. Your arm is broken," announces Katara upon mere seconds of examination.

"Yeah. It definitely feels that way," whimpers Ty Lee in earnest.

Katara examines the arm in question one more time and then decides, "We'll quit the mission for now and I'll get you back to Republic City."

Ty Lee just nods.

She never has been one to make her own decisions.

[X]

Meanwhile, Azula walks with Mai across unfamiliar ground. It actually is quite pleasant today. Streams, trees, minimal decomposing corpses. They only needed to put down one zom this morning so far. A blissful, beautiful day that ought not be ruined with relationship chatter.

So Mai says strictly, "I desperately, desperately do not want to talk about your relationship with Ty Lee."

"Good. I have no desire to discuss it either," coldly replies Azula, tossing a box of Advil into her leather messenger bag. "We played seven minutes in Heaven once."

Mai blinks and freezes in her tracks. "How have you never told me that?"

Azula dismissively waves her hand. "It was at that birthday party she shared with her twin sister."

"She shared all of her birthday parties with her twin sister. They're twins."

Azula glares and huffily replies, "Her fourteenth, I think. The last one before the apocalypse started. She tried to teach me to flirt at it."

"Ohhh, now I remember. That was equal parts hysterical and disastrous." Mai _almost_ smiles remembering that wild nightmare of a night.

Azula hisses, "You shut up before I hurt you."

The girls keep scavenging in silence for some time.

Mai takes a breath. This is the last thing she wants to do, yet, she forces herself to say, "I know that Ty Lee will never stand up to you. That's why I think you should keep her limitations in mind. She'd do anything for you." Azula looks oddly pleased by that; she shows her teeth when she grins, a very rare occurrence for a girl who almost solely smirks. Her smile reminds Mai of a cemetery gate. "Is that why you like her? Because she'd do anything for you."

"Look, I know her, and I know her limitations. I've known her for a long time. She's the kind of person who eats too much sugar but drinks pure pomegranate juice because it's good for her. She's the kind of person who takes too many photos, selfies, and her friends, and nature. She's good at growing plants; I never had the knack for it. Remember those weird pink flowers in her windowbox? She named them all. She got excited about buying fresh peaches. She always took her high heels off to run in the park. But she also always had a pair of brass knuckles in the pocket of her shirt and a switchblade in her purse. I _know_ her. Stop pretending I exclusively use people because they're useful to me. Sometimes I use them because I like them."

The two girls stop in front of an overturned train.

Mai says with a slight sigh, "Let's stop talking about Ty Lee and go kill some zombies."

Azula just nods.

She has no desire to discuss her relationship any further.

[X]

The four girls regroup in their dormitory after a rather ordinary day of combat and gossip. Ty Lee lies in bed, magazine in one hand, awkwardly flipping it with the fingertips of her broken arm. Mai and Azula sit on the other side of the room and Katara perches herself on the dirty windowsill.

Ty Lee sings out, "Who wants to know their horoscope?"

Azula icily breathes, "Our horoscopes from before the world ended? Many, many moons ago?"

Ty Lee smiles, brushing off Azula's mockery with practiced ease. "Yeah!" she chirps, batting her eyelashes. "They're still fun even if they aren't recent." Silence. "Okay, if nobody's volunteering I'll just tell you anyways! Azula's an Aries, Mai is a Virgo, I'm, like duh, a Gemini and I'd bet you anything that Katara is a Pisces."

Katara offers a smile, and corrects, "Aquarius."

"Close enough! Both are water signs," Ty Lee says, her smile turning into a grimace as she flips the magazine page.

Mid wince of pain, Ty Lee drops her magazine, fumbling with her sling, and sighs.

Azula states, heart racing at the very idea of offering assistance, "Let me help you with that."

"What?" Ty Lee asks, agape.

Azula fights back the pride rising in the back of her throat like white hot vomit. "Your arm is broken. Let me lift this for you."

Ty Lee persists, "You've never helped me with something before."

Azula shoots a glare that would silence an emperor or stop a zombie in its tracks. "I do what I want, Ty Lee. Stop questioning me."

Ty Lee dares to ask, "Could you grab my lipstick while you're down there, please?"

"No." Azula's gilded eyes smolder. "I am no one's slave and I do not do _fetch_ quests."

Katara hops down from the windowstill and interjects, "You literally do fetch quests every single day. You're a professional scavenger."

"She's still better than any ex-boyfriend of mine I've ever had!" chirps Ty Lee eagerly.

"That is true," says Mai.

Azula smirks victoriously.

[X]

A week later, the girls travel across the relatively small campus of Republic City together, clutching gifts for Jin's baby shower.

"You got her a broken wristwatch?"

"The watch is for my brother." Azula smirks as she jingles it in one hand. "It's as broken as his soul. I got her a stupid ball of yarn and some knitting needles."

Ty Lee frowns and turns up her palms in defeat. "I just got her peppermints."

"Why would you get her peppermints?"

"Don't pregnant women, like, crave peppermints?"

"No," reply three girls at once.

Ty Lee pouts.

[X]

After wandering the gigantic, gaudily loud party for a while, Zuko corners the four girls. Azula hands him the watch and the siblings briefly bicker, until Ty Lee interrupts to defend Azula and Zuko does not have the strength to argue.

Zuko says with an absentminded motion of his hand, "Oh, And we want you two to be the godparents."

Mai interrupts, "You know they're going to last like two weeks, right?"

"I wasn't talking about them. I was talking about you and Katara," says Zuko.

Mai's eyes widen. No one ever thought her face could be so expressive until this moment.

"Uh, okay," she says, looking to Katara for help and receiving none whatsoever.

"Wait, that isn't fair. I'm your sister!" Azula exclaims, clenching her fists.

"And I'm great with kids!" protests Ty Lee, pouting.

Zuko says, "And you both are wicked hyenas who shouldn't be trusted with children."

Azula scowls.

Ty Lee pouts.

Mai still has no idea what to say.


	4. Soap

**IV: SOAP**

"I want fancy soap, okay?" Ty Lee strains with the weight of the barricade blocking off access to the abandoned, dilapidated Sephora. They mowed down two dozen zoms to get here, and everyone but Ty Lee is incredibly unhappy about the destination. Yet, every time someone protests, Azula jumps in with her warrior princess viciousness and Katara and Mai just shut up and try to gain whatever they can from the ride.

It counts as a mall date, as Azula insisted many times on the journey here. Ty Lee chirped on and on about how it made them more like normal teens again.

"The stuff here was always so expensive. It's hard to believe this wasn't the first place looted," says Katara. "It looks surprisingly intact."

"Oh, yeah, let me stop on my way to get life saving provisions and expensive products and booze to get some… lipstick," sarcastically drawls Mai.

Ty Lee's eyes gleam as she starts pawing through the makeup and beauty products. She gently takes Azula by the hand and they walk together like a throwback couple from the time before zombies groaned and shambled faintly in the distance. Mai is grateful she and Katara never were so… basic.

Ty Lee remarks, "I used to fantasize about that movie _The Purge_. I'd totally rob this place if that were real."

Azula's eyes light up as she interjects, "I also fantasized about that movie. The freedom to do whatever I wanted without consequence in a sexy costume with fantastic weapons and… well, truly it was the dream. I disagreed with the distasteful representation of society's elite, however."

" _Society's elite_?" Katara asks, narrowing her eyes, jaw slack from exasperation.

"The rich, private school kids, like us," Azula explains, wrapping her arm around Ty Lee's waist. Ty Lee beams and snuggles against her girlfriend as they scout out every corner of the store, preventing any surprises while they scavenge.

"I was never that. I was rooting for the average people with consciences."

"That is why I find you boring." Azula picks up an eyeshadow palette and tears the plastic off of it.

A shelf loudly collapses onto the filthy floor and the girls jump into action. They see a man bleeding and walking towards them, one of his feet torn clean off and bleeding out on the floor. Two zoms pursue him and the group breaks in half. Azula and Ty Lee put down the zombies pursuing the victim human and the ones that flock around the Sephora once they hear the screaming.

Katara and Mai launch into paramedic mode but Katara just sighs and helps the man onto the floor.

"Were you bitten?"

"Yes." He chokes on sobs. He cannot be more than twenty, at the oldest. It is hard to tell through the blood and dirt. "Please help me. Please. Please!"

Mai clamps her hand over his mouth. "You're gonna die and turn into a zombie."

Katara stands up and averts her eyes.

"Please kill me before I turn!" begs the man, weeping loud, snotty tears of terror. "I'm not strong enough."

Mai swings her knife around her finger before the man whimpers and Katara snags it away.

Katara's heart aches; Azula and Ty Lee lean against a shelf making out with makeup stuffed into their backpacks, ignoring the dying man. Mai picks up Azula's gun from the shelf beside the canoodling ladies.

"Okay. I'll kill you," says Mai to the man, dryly with a shrug. "But not because you told me to."

She raises Azula's gun and shoots him once between the eyes.

"I found a foundation that _perfectly_ fits my skin tone!" exclaims Ty Lee, pulling away from Azula and wiping her lips as she grabs the palette.

Katara looks up from the fresh corpse and turns to face Ty Lee and Azula.

"You people are monsters," she comments, the words sore and ancient on her tongue. They have become as ordinary as mall dates once were.

"Then why do you hang out with us?" sharply demands Azula, setting her hands on her hips.

Katara shrugs and softly, sweetly sighs. "Lack of options."

Azula cackles in response. Katara stifles her laugh, hating herself for finding it funny.

"If I may suggest, my darling love," Ty Lee says, and Katara and Mai exchange a glance, Katara's eyebrow cocked. "You're a winter and that palette is for an autumn."

"Good point." Azula swaps out the eyeshadow for another hanging loosely from the bloody shelf. "I suppose you do have the brains for at least _one_ useful thing in this world. I am pleasantly surprised."

"Awww. You're so sweet to me." Ty Lee kisses Azula passionately on the lips.

Mai sarcastically comments, "I guess romance isn't dead."

Katara grimaces.


	5. Brave

**V. BRAVE**

* * *

The Fantastic Foursome relaxes in their quarters after a successful med run.

"It takes guts to survive in this fucked up world," says Katara, catching the bouncy ball as it returns to her hand from the ceiling. She lies on her bunk, staring up, wasting time with Azula, Ty Lee and Mai as usual. "All of us are brave. Don't insult people, Azula. I'm not going to stand for it. No one is weaker than you because they don't enjoy killing."

Azula scoffs and shakes her head. "The world was fucked up before zombies. The only difference is that now we just don't have phone service or proper plumbing. It took guts even before now."

Ty Lee thinks of herself on that final day of high school, before the whole world ended, and softly smiles, because she only now has finally achieved her romantic dreams, even in this zombie inhabited wasteland.

Azula stares at her, looking both perplexed and judgmental.

But Ty Lee sinks into her memories anyway.

* * *

The day of the zombie outbreak, mere hours before the world fell apart, "Just be brave, just be brave, just be brave," Ty Lee murmurs to herself again and again as she walks into school. She holds the card she made for Azula tightly in her hand. Ty Lee knew she loved Azula the moment she met her, the same way one is instantly aware of the sweetness in a drop of honey. And those feelings are as beautiful as they are terrifying.

This morning, her mother gave her the best advice she had yet.

 _"Nobody ever found love without being a little bit brave."_

She caresses the handmade card she made for Azula in her hand.

All Ty Lee can do is hope that her princess, her dream girl, reciprocates these feelings.

And doesn't doom her to be an outcast over it and bully her like the popular cheerleader monster Azula is.

* * *

Ty Lee does not have time to finish silently reminiscing because Suki radios their room about a mission.

No rest for the wicked, notes Azula as the four girls head for the tower in the center of Republic City. They meet up with Suki and Sokka, the latter finishing carefully wrapping razor wire around four baseball bats with nails in them. Inventing is a hobby of his; he created the generators and the plumbing system for Republic City, with more ingenuity on top of that. He also fashions weapons for the runners.

"I love it," purrs Azula as she picks up the bat Sokka holds out. "Good job."

He never has received a compliment from her before, so he just stands there, confused, as she walks away and the other girls graciously accept their new weapons.

"A horde of zombies is coming towards Republic City. I need you to guide them away with noise makers, and kill as many of them as you can. Lead them away and get to high ground until we can pick you up and get you back to the city," says Suki and Ty Lee wraps herself around Azula's arm.

"People die a lot on decoy missions," says Ty Lee, gradually melting closer and closer into her irritated girlfriend. Azula does not brush her off for fear of looking imperfect in front of Suki and Sokka.

"You're our best runners. All of you have survived impossible situations. That's why we're picking you. Aang and I will stay in contact over the radio during your run. Please, help Republic City. We can't resist a horde that size," says Suki, staying proud and commanding. Azula almost admires her, although she believes she herself would be a far, far better leader of Republic City.

"Well, I'm one of the bitches who lives here. I don't think I have a choice," says Azula coldly, and no one disagrees. "And neither do my companions."

They give the girls noisemakers and radios and send them on their way.

* * *

Azula swings her bat and crushes a zombie as they fight the horde on a city street, trying to push them towards the bridge, and giving them an easy way to climb once the battle finishes off. They managed to attract the entire gigantic horde of zombies, and it secretly terrifies them all.

"I'm at seventeen!" cries out Azula, smashing another like a kid breaking a mailbox for kicks. "Eighteen! Mai?"

"Twenty-two!" dryly shouts one of the Fabulous Four. She leads several zombies towards the alleyway to take them out one by one and thin out the horde further.

"I'm only at fifteen!" whines Ty Lee, roundhouse kicking a zombie and then smashing its skull in with her bat.

"No!" cries out Katara, making Azula roll her eyes. "No! Zombie kills aren't points! This isn't a game!"

"Batter up, bitch." Azula swings, connects, and brains splatter everywhere. Katara shudders at the sight. Ty Lee hides her gagging by leaning over and pretending to prepare for another strike.

Mai adds as she emerges from the alleyway bloody and victorious, "You just don't want to lose."

"Not true!" Katara yelps.

They continue fighting, Azula and Ty Lee laughing as they compete. Mai stops to please Katara, and mainly because she becomes bored as they continue killing and killing and leading the zombies closer and closer to the broken bridge.

When it comes time to leap the bridge, using the noisemakers to the highest extent possible. Mai jumps first. She lands and takes a breath of relief. Azula follows her. Ty Lee jumps but a zombie reaches for her braid and she screams, spinning to avoid it and almost plummeting into a dark, watery abyss. Azula almost risks herself to save her, jumping to the side of the bridge and pulling her up, holding her tightly as they sidle back to the bridge.

Azula and Ty Lee kiss passionately, and Ty Lee sucks on Azula's lip.

Katara kills two zombies and then takes a running jump. She makes it to the other side, but crashes down. She stumbles as Mai reaches out to catch her. Her arm goes into the sharp metal sticking up and her head smashes into the concrete.

The girls are free of zombies until Republic City gets them, but all three of them run to see an unconscious and heavily bleeding Katara.

Ty Lee tries to touch Mai's shoulder to comfort her, but Mai shoves her away. Azula catches her and holds her back as they watch Mai's face morph from something perpetually emotionless into tears, ugly tears and sobs.

She pries Katara from her prison of metal and rests her bloody head on Mai's lap.

"You can't die! You can't fucking die!" Mai grinds her teeth to hold back tears. "I love you! I love you! You can't die because I fucking love you! I fucking love you so you can't die!"

Never before has Mai been brave enough to say those three words. Only now do they escape her frantic lips.

Azula and Ty Lee watch, Ty Lee trying and failing to hold Azula's hand.

* * *

Back on the day the zombie apocalypse began, students chatter about the strange happenings in the city. Azula ignores it as she leans against her locker and lectures her friends in their cheerleading uniforms. Ty Lee wears hers too, but hers carries a secret in the varsity jacket pocket: a card confessing her love to Azula in case her verbal words are not enough.

Azula says coolly to the adoring and afraid cheerleaders under her icy command, " _Jennifer's Body_ is the greatest movie ever created. You morons are just straight or not brave enough to admit it."

They nod and agree, afraid to disagree with her. Everyone is. Ty Lee loves that about her.

"Um, Azula, can I talk to you alone," Ty Lee whispers, licking her lips and then biting down on them.

"I suppose." Azula shrugs coolly and walks with Ty Lee to the nicest bathroom in the school building.

Ty Lee wrings her hands and tries to figure out what to say. "Uh…"

"You are such a chatterbox. What happened? You look nervous. I had no idea your teeny tiny brain was capable of feeling anything but overly happy and _cute_. Did someone hurt you? Because I will fuck them up," purrs Azula, tossing her hair as Mai walks into the bathroom, the third best friend in the group.

Ty Lee sighs. She cannot confess in front of Mai. Ty Lee starts to reach into her pocket to pull out the card, tries to be brave, but then they hear the screaming and crashing outside, an utter panic.

"Fuck," mutters Mai. "This morning was shitty enough already."

Minutes after emerging from the bathroom, they discover that students are being turned left and right, bit by two infected students who changed during a biology class of all places. Azula glances between Mai and Ty Lee and decides they are the only people in the world she cares at all about protecting from the undead.

And these morons will need it, in Azula's opinion.

Ty Lee throws the note from her pocket as she starts racing towards the emergency exit with Azula and Mai.

"Run!" orders Azula, grabbing Ty Lee by the arm. Mai follows them closely, grabbing onto Ty Lee's braid. The three young women cling to each other for their entire journey.

They travel for days and days, avoiding zombies, learning to fight when mere days before they were learning geometry and algebra. And Azula, well, Azula never lets Ty Lee go.

Yet, Ty Lee never thinks she can tell her.

Never thinks she can tell her what she planned to tell her that day.

She is brave enough to shoot zombies, but not brave enough to confess her love for her best friend.

* * *

As the four girls settle in at Republic City after the fiasco with the baseball bats and vital medical supplies, a heavily bandaged and drugged up Katara looks up at Mai in the hastily, shoddily built locker room. Azula and Ty Lee are in the showers together. Mai and Katara steer clear of that, since they have at least a few ounces of wisdom in them.

They both think about the same thing. They both think about Katara's brush with death.

Finally, Katara breaks the silence.

"You love me," says Katara, smiling. "You, Mai, love _me_. Mai Zhang loves me, Katara Tumanako. You love me!"

Mai scoffs and chokes. "You're dreaming, Katara."

Katara stands up and grabs Mai by the shoulders, gazing deeply into her eyes as she proudly teases, "Don't deny it! You love me! Aww! You love-"

Mai taps her pistol. "I have far too many bullets in this thing for you to still be talking."

Katara just laughs.

As they step away from the shower with damp hair and dry civilian clothes, Azula and Ty Lee exchange a knowing glance once reserved for other people watching them.

* * *

 **A/N:** Does the Maitara scene count as an apology for _Ash and Petals_? Question for the readers because I think this might be fun for a #TyzulaTuesday story (a weekly question to get to know everybody better). What's your favorite book? Mine is _Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas_.


	6. Fresh Start Strange Fruit

**VI. FRESH START**

Just a few months ago, they were their yearbook pictures. Their biggest concerns were what to wear to homecoming and how to get laid. Now they are trying to rebuild society in a world dominated by zombies.

It is not the kind of fresh start anyone ever wanted, or ever once predicted.

"It's weird going back to our old neighborhood," remarks Mai, showing no emotional reaction or connection to this place. Azula is almost as secretive about it as Mai, trying to keep up her reputation as a cutthroat birch with a cold storage shed in the place of a heart. Ty Lee, however, does not hide her constant flipping between excited observation and abject horror.

The three best friends stride through an upper class town that is trapped in a state of soft decay. The apocalypse rendered the once familiar landmarks almost unrecognizable but eerily familiar.

Once upon a time, this was their home.

It feels like another world, a lifetime ago, a memory from a dream.

"So, this is where you guys grew up?" asks Katara, breaking the silence that had stretched for an eternity.

"Yeah," replies Mai. "We've been I guess best friends or whatever we are since preschool."

"And you all survived the zombie apocalypse together." Katara smiles, as if any of the memories of the life before the end are _fond_. In Azula's opinion, those memories do not belong to Katara and therefore she has absolutely no right to grin about them. "That's sweet. It's a nice story."

They reach the school and put down four teenage zoms before walking inside. At the front office, they start scavenging for anything useful.

"I found something awesome!" calls out Ty Lee, as excited as someone who located fuel or medication.

The girls snap to face her and see her holding up a dusty, decaying _yearbook_. God.

"That _is_ awesome," comments Katara, striding over to flip through it.

Mai dashes to try to stop her. Azula tosses a box of band-aids she finds in a filing cabinet into her pack.

"This yearbook does not accurately represent me as a person," dryly says Mai, a livid gleam in her otherwise expressionless eyes.

Katara has her cobalt eyes fixated fiercely on the photograph of the cheer team. In the very middle stands Azula, with Mai and Ty Lee on either side of her. Ty Lee has her leg kicked up, Azula looks as smug and superior as usual, and Mai looks like she would rather be anywhere but that gymnasium in front of a camera.

"You were so adorable before you went full on Rambo," laughs Katara. "The _ribbons_!"

Mai sucks in her cheeks and holds her tongue.

"They were popular that year," says Azula, finally walking over to join the crowd around the useless periodical. "I wore them one day, and then they were the trend."

"Oh, a trendsetter," teases Katara, rolling her eyes. Azula glowers, nose upturned. "It's weird looking at stuff from before the end of the world. It doesn't look real."

"Everybody has these memories," says Ty Lee. "That seem like they come from a different life."

Silence.

No one wants to admit and acknowledge just how right Katara and Ty Lee are.

And how painful it feels to look at who they were before the zombies starting biting.

[X]

After scavenging some scraps from the high school, they head further into the town and end up at the upscale and untouched pharmacy in the middle of an abandoned plaza, decorated by angst ridden graffiti.

For the people of Republic City, this find is like striking gold or oil.

They scavenge quickly, not bothering to pay attention to labels, taking anything and everything that fits in their packs, their shoes, their pockets.

Once the main mission has been accomplished, they start heading deeper into the town, to the pretty old oak trees and rows of huge, elaborate, identical white houses.

They chatter as they walk, until, "Oh God," suddenly whispers Katara.

The sensation of sickness even hits Azula. All four girls freeze on the spot.

Bodies hang from the trees. Zombies, all of them, snapping and snarling and growling and trying to escape the bonds that pin them in place. The stench floats through the brisk springtime air, turning even the strongest stomach.

"It's a warning," says Azula, trying to keep the nerves out of her voice. She knows she can take anyone, but something about this gives her goosebumps.

"A warning about what?" asks Ty Lee, wrapping herself around Azula's strong arm.

"A warning not to fuck with whoever tied those people up there," says Mai in a cool, chilling monotone.

"I don't plan on listening to that warning," says Katara, and Mai sighs. "Help me put these zoms out of their misery and then we'll see who thinks they can screw with my girlfriend's home town."

The fantastic foursome quickly begin their work.

[X]

At the end of the path, they find a gated neighborhood surrounded by tall walls. Someone put up salvaged barbed wire at the top of the decorative stone. The gate itself has been sealed up with metal boards, leaving only a small, tightly locked door as the sole entrance to this community of sickos.

They try whatever they can to get in before giving up and starting to work on the door locks. That also is fruitless.

"I rarely say something so foolish as this but any suggestions?" Inquires Azula, an eyebrow cocked.

"We could kick down the door," suggests Ty Lee.

Mai remarks, "Wow, Ty Lee; you have all the subtlety of a hand grenade."

"Do not," snarls Azula in the regal voice of an empress, "insult her, bubbleheaded as she may be. She poses a better solution than any of you clowns."

"Fine. Kick it down," says Mai, staring directly into Azula's eyes.

Katara cringes, already knowing what happens when someone challenges Azula's pride.

Azula, of course, spin kicks around and pounds so fiercely into the metal that it falls to the floor.

"That was amazingly hot," comments Ty Lee, bouncing into Azula's arms. Katara and Mai do not have the time to be disgusted by those lips colliding... they have noticed the other side of the door.

Another path lined by what Azula called warnings. But this is nothing like the zoms they put down. This is piles of dismembered body parts and heads on stakes with bullets still in the foreheads.

Azula bites down on her lower lip. This is a challenge she both aches for and knows is unwise to take on. It sucks to be both intelligent and ferocious. They do not mix well.

Although, the combination certainly give her combat and conversation an icy and precise edge.

"Maybe we shouldn't take this place on..." breathes Katara. Mai nods in assent. Ty Lee takes a few steps back, making her decision clear. Azula sneers at her girlfriend, ashamed to be in love with someone so pathetic.

"I'm going in there. You cowards can stay here."

Ty Lee grabs onto Azula tightly. "Please," she says, kissing her girlfriend softly. "Don't do this. You'll die."

Azula shakes Ty Lee off of her. "Well, if I die, I'll send my best regards from Hell."

Mai grabs Azula as Ty Lee backs off, afraid of losing her girlfriend by disobeying her.

"You're not going in there. We'll find out what's inside this Eli Roth nightmare with proper backup. We need more than one runner to take this place on."

"You doubt me?" Azula delivers those three words with such cold confidence that someone who did not know her when she was a toddler would back off or at least falter.

"This is too much for us," says Mai, tightening her grip on Azula. "We have to take this to Suki."

Finally, Azula nods.

Ty Lee mouths, 'Thank you,' at Mai while her girlfriend is looking in another direction.

The piercing gaze of the fantastic foursome lingers for a few moments until they break away and start running.

Some people used this fresh start to make a better world.

Some people used this fresh start to sate sadistic desires and do nothing more than that.

This mysterious settlement is evidence of that.

* * *

 **STRANGE FRUIT**

* * *

As they walk through the town, back the way they came, abandoning their plans to get back to base and warn Suki, "Azula!" cries out Ty Lee.

"Could you be quiet so as not to wake every zom in-" Azula stops speaking when she sees what Ty Lee was yelling about. A little girl walks slowly and cautiously towards them.

"Hello?" asks Katara, carefully and gently stepping forward.

The child still remains wary. It explains why she has survived so long. Yet, she approaches, holding a scorched teddy bear in one arm. She keeps moving, clearly a human, clearly warm, clearly not a zom but certainly as slow as one.

Once the child is close enough, Ty Lee walks to her. The others stay still/

"What's your name, honey?" asks Ty Lee, sweeping the dirty little girl into her arms.

"Kiyi," whispers the child as Ty Lee softly tucks the girl's raven hued bang behind her tiny ear. "Does anybody have food in her pack?"

Azula fishes out a can of peaches and walks to her girlfriend. The child cowers at the very sight of her, at how she moves like a predator stalking prey, how her sharp features are eerie and her eyes are as cold as a serpent.

"Here," says Azula, cracking open the can with only her long, sharp fingernails.

Ty Lee's heart flutters. She cannot say it for fear of angering her girlfriend, but seeing Azula act so compassionately towards a child gives her a warm, gooey feeling inside. It makes her want to adopt five orphaned little babies with Azula, the scariest and least friendly girl in Republic City.

Maybe she has a heart as golden as her eyes, buried under all the glacial fire.

After tenatively digging into the can with her filthy bare hands, Kiyi bites into the overly sweet canned peaches with a great fervor.

Once she swallows, "I've never had these before," she chirps brightly.

Not one of the four girls knows what to say.

Or what to do, for that matter, other than take their new companion back to Republic City.

To Azula's great and hidden dismay, Kiyi will not unlatch from Ty Lee for the duration of the journey.

Fantastic.

She may be an evil stepmother by the end of the day.

* * *

 **A/N:** Question of the week is if you could go anywhere in the world for a vacation, where would it be? I want to go visit my family in Spain (Barcelona) and then spend a few weeks sunning on the beach in Mallorca.


	7. Blood

**BLOOD**

Kiyi, the newest addition to the local girl gang, returns to Republic City clinging to Ty Lee and Azula. Why she chose the two of them, none could say but the shell-shocked and barely verbal toddler. And she was about as likely to talk as a murderer on death row.

"Who's this sweet little—" begins Suki before Kiyi makes a sound like an angry cat and wraps herself around Azula's legs. The elder girl's golden eyes flash wide in uncomfortable shock. She hates children. She hates this entire situation.

A pregnant Jin steps away from Zuko and starts to approach but Azula stands rather protectively in front of Kiyi.

"I believe the child wants all of you to back the fuck off," Azula snarls. Ty Lee almost swoons; this could honestly not be more attractive. Just couldn't be. Protective Azula is a hot Azula, in Ty Lee's personal very biased opinion.

"Oh," Suki replies, awkwardly clearing her throat. "She's not bitten, right?"

"As far as I know, no. But she will observe proper quarantine procedures."

"We can find someone to take her in."

"She will be staying with us."

Suki appears irked that Azula keeps ordering her around, but this does not seem like a battle worth fighting.

She watches as Azula and Ty Lee take Kiyi to quarantine, the little girl between them, holding one hand each.

As the girl skips, Katara and Mai exchange a glance that says it all.

This should be interesting.

[X]

Mai and Katara are out on watch. Ty Lee is asleep, as far as Azula can tell. And so she sighs and relents when the little child cries and begs for a lullaby.

"Please, please, please…" Kiyi whimpers.

"I… I am not your mother. You are not my blood. I…" Azula wants to wake Ty Lee, but she also does not want to ever ask for help, especially from someone as lowly and airheaded as her girlfriend. "I have very little desire to comfort anyone. I am about as warm hearted as a zombie who just took an ice path."

"I miss…" Kiyi just sinks into the bed.

Azula sighs. She leans down close to the girl so that no one can overhear, and softly sings, "Leaves from the vine / falling so slow / like fragile tiny shells drifting in the foam / little soldier boy / come marching home / brave soldier boy / come marching…" Azula stops when the little child falls asleep.

Ty Lee smiles in the darkness, her eyes glittering in the dull moonlight as she gazes at her girlfriend.

She watches, listens.

But she will never tell.

[X]

The girl gang plus Suki and Sokka prepare to dive back into Azula, Mai and Ty Lee's hometown. They need to examine the freakish establishment there in case it poses a threat to the community.

Katara gazes forward, looking somewhere far away.

"Are you having a seizure?" Mai dryly asks, sitting down on the bench beside her and balancing her augmented baseball bat between her knees.

"We're going out again. I don't think it's going to be pretty, judging from what we saw last week."

"It's never pretty." Mai shrugs.

Katara exhales a deep, wounded sigh.

"Sometimes I just stare at the wall around the city. Like we built a prison to keep us safe, y'know? I get this… I get this urge to go to the beach and build sandcastles or just climb a hill to look at the view. But we're… not allowed because it serves no purpose to the base," says Katara.

The silence is dark, darker than any the girl gang has felt in a long time.

But it turns into Azula cackling and Ty Lee giggling as Sokka walks into the room with his weapons in hand and his runner outfit on. His lightly armored denim jacket, denim shirt and jeans.

Suki coughs, trying not to snort.

Katara is the only one who manages to catch her breath and confront her big brother.

"Sokka, what on Earth is that train wreck of an outfit?" demands Katara, trying her best not to burst into hysterical laughter.

"It's protective gear! Zombies can't bite through denim!" her brother indignantly snaps. "This is the apocalypse, not some girly fashion show!"

Mai wryly comments, "Not even the apocalypse can make me wear double denim."

Sokka scowls and Suki kisses his cheek, ending the discussion.

"Okay, let's raise the gates," declares Suki to Aang. He nods and hustles into the radio control room.

The girls, Sokka and Suki walk down the stairs and head to the only entrance into the city.

Suki hands out headsets, which they usually only use for runs close to home.

She says, "We're equipped with headsets to keep us in contact with Republic City."

"I thought it was out of range," says Katara, taking her headset and examining it closely.

"Sokka made some tweaks. I don't know if it will hold up, but I hope it will."

"Encouraging," remarks Katara as everyone clamps their headset to their ears. On a mission likely to end in a battle, this is not the worst thing that they could be equipped with.

Aang's voice crackles into the headsets, "I agree with Katara. This definitely feels like how horror movies start."

"The dead have risen from the grave," comments Katara. "We're already in a horror movie."

"Good point." He laughs a little too hard and for a little too long. The poor boy could never hide his crush on Katara well, but she was with Mai, and they showed no sign of breaking up any time soon. Aang could at least respect the relationship. He was a decent guy like that.

They headed out in the direction of Azula's hometown.

She tried not to think about what she lost there.

[X]

Azula remembers going on a haunted hayride with Mai and Ty Lee, back when selecting Halloween costumes was such a significant dilemma. Those days seem hazy and amber tinted, like they come from a different world. Beneath the full moon, Azula, Mai and Ty Lee sat together on a carriage and laughed, and Azula of course complained about the mud and subpar conditions. It was not anywhere close to the limousines and fancy cars she grew up on.

A man in a zombie costume jumped out.

Ty Lee punched him in the face on impulse.

Mai and Azula never let her forget it.

Maybe it means something these days. Maybe it doesn't.

But it's a memory Azula cannot stop thinking about as they trek towards the town. She remembers how life was. How zombies were just people in make-up, things of stupid movies Azula hated watching. She always preferred the sexiness of vampires and the enticing psychopathy of slashers.

"Is it painful going back here?" Katara asks. "I… I can get why it might be. Our families…"

"Yes. We all have had to kill at least one person of our own blood. I had to kill my father. I shot him between the eyes. He told me not to hesitate or cry. He told me not to make him ashamed of me in his final moments. But it was his own overconfidence that got him bitten in the first place. He did… he did always seem invincible to me."

"My dad had to kill my mom," whispers Katara. "He tried to hide it from us but I watched from the other room."

"I killed my parents and I didn't give a fuck," says Mai and Katara's eyes widen.

"You don't mean that," Katara snaps.

"Of course I mean it. They never meant much to me."

"They were your flesh and blood!"

"Yeah, but they weren't anything more than that."

"We'll make new families," chirps Ty Lee, neglecting to speak of the chaos in her home as sister killed sister, the paranoia when her youngest sister was bitten. She does not want to talk about such dark things. "Why not? Zuko and Jin are doing it. I bet we'll all have new families real soon."

Ty Lee winks at Azula.

Azula looks away.

And now Ty Lee is confused yet again about where she stands in Azula's eyes.

"Soon is a strong word," says Azula. "It takes time for someone to earn enough of my respect that I would wed them or have children with them."

"I'd put money on Sokka and Suki getting pregnant next," says Mai, looking at the two leading the group, side by side, the chemistry between them painfully obvious. They always have been the mom and dad of Republic City.

"Zombie!" Ty Lee exclaims, taking two steps forward and braining it with her bat. Azula licks her lips, a tingling sensation flooding through her. But she forces it away and returns to her cold, noncommittal, unloving self.

Azula pivots and shoots the second one creeping up on them.

After that, they keep striding forward as a group, keeping an eye out for any other attackers.

* * *

 **A/N:** This chapter took ages to get out because it was extremely long. I ended up having to cut it in half and on Tuesday I'll post the second half of it, when the local girl gang plus Sokka and Suki confront a crazed murder cult and reveal some dramatic secrets.


	8. Dying Young Date Night In Bloom

**DYING YOUNG**

Azula, Ty Lee, Mai, Katara, Sokka and Suki stand at the spiked posts and slain, unmoving corpses that lay there as warnings from the fortified mystery settlement a few feet ahead.

"Oh God," breathes Suki in a tone of utter disgust and fear. Everyone on the mission snaps to face her, stunned by her reaction. Despite how Azula or Katara would protest, Suki has always been the strongest of the soldiers and runners who keep Republic City alive.

"What is it?" crackles Aang's voice into their headsets.

"A flayed zombie," replies Katara. "His teeth have all been yanked out too."

Aang asks, "How could anyone get close enough or hold a zombie down well enough to do that?"

Katara replies as nonchalantly as she can, "I guess we'll find out when we raid this place."

"Katara…" Aang sighs, remembering that everyone can hear him. "Uh, everybody, check in with me when you can. This is a really high risk thing. I'm going to check in on you every-"

"Oh my God, don't," snarls Azula. "I can't handle your high pitched voice grating against my ears every two minutes while I fight an evil cult."

"I don't have a high pitched voice," protests Aang.

"Yeah, you do," says Ty Lee.

Aang rambles awkwardly, "I mean, I know it's…"

Azula cackles mockingly. "What do you think you sound like? James Earl Jones?"

"I-no-but maybe Patrick Stewart." Pause. "Once when I had the flu I did a great Johnny Cash impression."

Katara giggles. Ty Lee thinks she sees Mai make a look, but the expression does not last long enough on her best friend's face for her to be certain.

Sokka states forcefully, "We need to get in there. Now."

No one speaks or makes a move until Suki gives a small, succinct nod.

Without further ado, they break down the gates — Sokka fights Azula for the honors and wins — and head into the compound with war faces on and weapons ready. They pass blood, a few shopping carts with limbs and other squishy, pulsing parts in them. Mostly, they see forms of barricade and impressive zombie traps.

Finally, they reach the beginning of the houses in the gated neighborhood and see a small town constructed from the crumbling remnants.

They try to be stealthy, but Mai stumbles over a small tripwire, setting off a siren. The group snaps to attention as a horde of soldiers emerge and easily surround them before anyone can swing a sword or fire a bullet.

Azula recognizes them all. Neighbors, colleagues, fellow students.

Pushing through the crowd, the evident leader — judging by his grotesque crown — steps to face the group. It's the head football player.

"Ugh, this douche just had to survive the zombie apocalypse," mutters Mai.

Azula purrs to the ridiculous raider gang surrounding her and her companions, "Did you think you could throw a party without inviting me?"

"Azula?" asks Rooster, cocking an eyebrow. His girlfriend, a mousy little thing with ugly lipstick whose name slips Azula's mind for the moment, glowers

Proudly, Azula calls up at him, shaking her head as her friends clutch their weapons and uneasily eye the countless raiders pointing guns at them, "It's good to see some things haven't changed since the apocalypse. For example, you still look like you're halfway through animorphing into a rat."

"Hi, Rooster!" Ty Lee smiles and waves.

Rooster's petite brunette girlfriend waves, looking much more pleased to see one half of the relationship than the other. "Hi, Ty Lee! I thought you were totally dead!"

Ty Lee waves back and beams.

Then, however, Rooster leans in towards the microphone and declares in a booming, crackling timbre, "Survive the gauntlet and we'll let you go."

"What's the gauntlet?" Suki demands, tightening her grip on her gun, although she knows they are outnumbered. As talented as they are at combat, not one person thinks it is a good idea to start a fight unless absolutely necessary.

Rooster's lips twitch, eyes flashing faintly in the sunlight. "A game."

"A game?" Ty Lee asks, cocking her head to the side.

"You run, you die, we watch. It's a blast. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll have your insides ripped out and spilled on the sidewalk." Rooster laughs. His followers slowly do the same.

"No thanks," says Katara, raising her gun and firing. It hits Rooster right between the eyes.

His girlfriend screams. The gang raises their weapons and prepares to take on the camp of crazies.

But then the zombies arrive.

A horde of them. The largest horde Azula has ever seen, released from gates frothing with rage like a bull in a rodeo.

Fuck.

[X]

After at least twenty to thirty minutes of running from the raider's pet zombies, knowing amused eyes are on them with their every move, Azula, Ty Lee, Mai and Katara run through the water in the deep ravine behind the largest, most extravagant suburban houses in town, searching for some kind of escape as the murder cult's gigantic horde of pet zombies hungrily pursue them. They keep running through the freezing river, Azula and Ty Lee clinging to each other and Katara tugging Mai along with her.

Mutually, at this point, as the zombies slow at least for a few moments, the group exchanges a few breathless words and ultimately decides to hide, to catch their breath. There is not much space in what Rooster titles The Gauntlet, but they find an alcove near a pile of washed up phones. Useless, anyway.

Katara snarls, filled with anger at the affront to decency and morals, "These sickos have been probably feeding people to their pet zombies for months."

Mai comments, "I never took Rooster for a leader, honestly."

"Why do freaky raiders always have freaky nicknames?" Sokka inquires, shaking his head.

Ty Lee giggles. "Oh, we've all been calling him Rooster since eighth grade."

"Why do you call him Rooster?" asks Suki, helping Sokka stay stable and moving when he stumbles on cracked pavement.

"Don't say it. Please don't say it," Mai mutters.

"He fucked a chicken," chirps Ty Lee. "Right in the school cafeteria."

Aang's voice crackles in, "Was it… was it dead or alive?"

None of the three girls who knew him reply.

Suki sarcastically says, however, "A true small town hero."

The laughter erupts in a slow rumble.

Laughing like lunatics, knowing they are looking down the barrel of a hungry, undead, rotting gun.

At least they are enjoying a few of their final moments.

"Hey!" shouts a disembodied female voice. "Hey, over here!"

The gang pivots and stumbles and hastens away from the zombies in the general direction of some once impeccably groomed shrubbery.

A young, beautiful girl stands there, clutching a machete tightly and subtly guarding her frayed backpack. Even Azula loosens her posture when they see the first friendly-ish face of the day.

"Who are you?" demands Azula, raising her pistol. Ty Lee, Mai and Sokka brandish their weapons, while Katara bites her lower lip and Suki studies the stranger closely.

"My name is On Ji. I've been on the run from these raiders for a week. They're really scary."

Suki agrees breathlessly, "These people are fucking intense. What kind of psychos gather an army of zombies?"

Azula scoffs and rolls her eyes. She says as if she is the only intelligent person in the known Universe, "The kind of psychos who ripped a zombie's teeth out and cut off it's skin."

Sokka wonders aloud, "How did they get so close to that zombie anyway?"

On Ji grimaces and explains, "It's simple. He protested against the cult. He was part of them, but then he called them all crazy. He… he was still alive when they flayed him and took out his teeth."

Ty Lee's stomach churns. "I'm gonna yarf."

"Just do it away from me," says Azula, shoving Ty Lee to the side.

Ty Lee bounces back with the incredibly grim question, "What happens to Kiyi if we don't make it back alive?"

"What?" Azula furrows her brow, staring intently at Ty Lee.

"What happens to Kiyi if-"

"I heard you. She just goes to the orphanage like the other children. Or some bleeding heart teenage girl adopts her. I don't see why this matters."

"Because she—she imprinted on us. She's our family."

"A few blocks away from here, I killed my own father. Family doesn't mean anything anymore."

"Zuko," says Ty Lee, a little uneasy at the potential for a fight with Azula. She does everything she can to avoid those. Because Azula always wins, even when Ty Lee is right.

Azula says, "I hardly speak to him and we live twenty feet away from each other."

Ty Lee gulps and whispers, "Do I matter to you?"

Azula stays silent, and she and Ty Lee stay in their own little world despite the conversation around them.

"To a certain extent, possibly. Isn't it easier to stay unattached? Isn't it easier to enjoy every kill and not worry about ever being killed? Just trust me, Ty Lee, and do as I do without questioning me."

Azula regally declares, hand on her hip, "We can talk about this when we're not in mortal danger."

Ty Lee nods, swift, cute, birdlike.

The divided couple tunes back into the frantic, hushed conversation the rest of the gang and On Ji hold.

"Okay, so we take as many twists and turns and unnecessary time as we can. We thin the zombie crowd and then kill whoever - whatever - is left," says Sokka.

No one has a better idea.

[X]

They have cut through three neighborhoods when they find themselves scurrying onto a crumbling roof in a dilapidated, overgrown cul-de-sac.

"We have to jump," says Suki.

"Are you crazy?" squeaks Ty Lee.

"We can't stay up here forever. We have to keep moving. The horde isn't thinned enough-"

"The horde is thinned enough," states Azula. "On Ji, do you know how to use that gun."

On Ji turns up her palms and shrugs with a slight nod. "I'm American."

"Good. We have weapons, we have hopefully lost that insane cult of raiders, and we can take down some of the undead to get out of this hellhole." Azula sets her hands on her hips. "We can pick off what we can from the roof."

No one has a better idea.

[X]

The last zom is down. The group is breathless and certainly out of ammo at this point. They all need showers to avoid the dangers of infection. They turn to start their run again, when crush, a baseball bat swings, and Azula hits the ground, smashing her head on the sidewalk.

Ty Lee screams and pivots, tackling the brunette girlfriend of Rooster to the ground. Her fist collides with her former classmate's face again and again and again until the girl is bloody, Ty Lee's knuckles are bruised, and Mai is dragging Ty Lee's body away.

Struggling for breath, Ty Lee turns and sees Katara attempting to revive Azula so they can get the fuck out of here.

Ty Lee, panicked, mindless in this moment, shouts, "Let me through. I'm gonna kiss her!"

"That's for fairy tales, moron," snaps Mai, tugging on Ty Lee's arms to pull her back from her impulse move. But Ty Lee breaks free and Mai does not care enough to drag her back.

Katara continues the CPR but Ty Lee charges forward. "It's like a reflex! If I start kissing her she might kiss me back!"

Katara loudly protests, "You can't just kiss unconscious p-"

Ty Lee shoves Katara aside and kneels down, pressing her lips softly against Azula's, and then more intensely.

Azula shudders, her eyes flutter open, and she slowly pulls away.

She lifts her hand and touches the wound on her head.

Sokka pulls her to her feet while Ty Lee stares in agape awe, and the group - including new potential Republic City citizen On Ji - resumes their flight from the suburbs.

 **DATE NIGHT**

A few days after escaping her childhood neighborhood, head injury mostly healed, Azula picks up the doll that Kiyi hands her and throws it across the room. "Fetch." Azula attempts to force a friendly smile and fails.

Kiyi just giggles.

"Azula…" chides Katara.

"What? Is fetch too advanced for her?"

Ty Lee cannot help but giggle.

Kiyi grins at Azula. "You're funny!"

"Ty Lee and I are having our date night now. Give Katara and Mai as much trouble as possible." Azula winks and wickedly smirks as Katara rolls her wide weary eyes.

"Bye bye." Kiyi smiles and wraps her arms tightly around Azula.

Ty Lee almost swoons. Despite her girlfriend's unpleasant expression, seeing her interact with a child is the best thing Ty Lee has witnessed since before the world ended.

Azula and Ty Lee leave their dorm and walk through the dimly lit streets of Republic City. Ty Lee chatters on and on about the latest gossip while Azula examines her fingernails and does not even pretend to pay attention.

Finally, they arrive at the park in the middle of town, an attempt at preservation in a walled village that looks exactly like the type of utilitarian oasis one would expect to find in the post-apocalypse.

They sit down on one of the dilapidated benches and gaze at the pond filled with contented ducks.

"I wonder if the birds have noticed that everything is different," comments Ty Lee, a quizzical frown flickering across her beautiful face.

Azula pretends to ponder the question she deems idiotic without a second thought. "I doubt it. It isn't as if any animals become zombies."

Ty Lee licks her lips and beams. "Can we feed them, Azula?"

"It would be a waste of resources. Even someone as empty headed and vain as you must be aware of that," states Azula. Ty Lee pouts. She opens her mouth to speak but Azula coolly interrupts, "Don't try to guilt trip me. I don't have a soul, so it won't work."

And Ty Lee just softly smiles as the sun slowly sets and they stargaze side by side.

 **IN BLOOM**

Teenagers in spring. Those are the best three words to use to describe Republic City of late. Spring has come, and while it smells of rotting corpses and burning flesh rather than petrichor and flowers, hormones still seize the young people within this city of only those in their early twenties and younger.

And Azula and Ty Lee both cannot stop thinking about the possibility of having sex with each other.

Having sex for the first time.

They cannot help but feel the tension as they spar on the small training grounds set up for the runners, and anyone who wants to practice fighting the undead.

"Is that the best you can do?" mocks Azula as the two blades collide.

Ty Lee tries to fight her pale pink blush.

She just bats her eyelashes and sweetly asks, "Can you show me that thing with the gun again?"

With a cocky smirk, Azula tosses the pistol into the air with a small flourish, and then knocks Ty Lee slightly to the side with her elbow. She steps behind Ty Lee, catches the pistol, and points it directly between the eyes of her girlfriend.

They stumble slightly towards each other. Ty Lee reaches forward and presses her hand against Azula's back, steadying her on her feet. They gaze deeply into each other's eyes, suddenly acutely aware of each other's breathing, and the gentle heave of their chests. Azula tries to resist thinking about the dark heat now trembling in her core.

"Can you show me how to do that?" asks Ty Lee, slowly and reluctantly removing her hand from the body of her girlfriend.

"Yes." Azula smirks.

They stare at each other in the deep, heavy silence for the longest while.

But they snap back into their training, resisting the siren song of sex.

For today, at least.


	9. Parents

**PARENTS**

Parenting is harder than Azula thought it would be. When it comes to Kiyi, handful is an understatement. Azula never wanted children. Not after having such terrible parents and a brother she loathes to this day. But the zombie apocalypse has a way of changing one's opinion on things.

She secretly likes taking care of the kid when she's not at daycare with the rescued orphans and products of teenage pregnancy.

Kiyi makes Ty Lee's bunk remarkably crowded. Azula always coldly complains but she secretly likes the little girl petting her hair at night.

Tonight, however, Kiyi is a little nightmare.

"I'm gonna be a runner when I grow up!' Kiyi exclaims as she runs around miming fighting zoms.

"Kiyi, it's past midnight," groans Mai, rolling over in bed and clamping the sides of her pillow over her assaulted ears. "Someone shut the child up."

Azula just smirks and lies back to watch her little girl play zombie slayer.

[X]

The next morning, tired out of her mind, Azula paces impatiently in the armory as she waits for her new runner to arrive. Ty Lee pops her bubblegum and Azula shoots her a wicked glare.

Finally, twenty minutes late, the new girl arrives. Korra, her name apparently is supposed to be. She looks like a walking disaster.

"Did you enjoy your coffee?" Azula asks the awkwardly smiling, breathless newbie.

"What?" Korra cocks an eyebrow, evidently befuddled.

Azula waves a hand dismissively. "Just say yes so we can move on."

"Uhh… yes."

Azula narrows her eyes. "Good, because I would much rather my new runner stop for coffee than oversleep or get lost on her way to the armory."

Korra, who appeared confident moments ago, now looks as unnerved as anyone else who gets a speech from Azula. Ty Lee suppresses a giggle and cracks her bubblegum between her teeth.

"So, I passed my test with flying colors. I finished the obstacle course in record time and I'm good with most of the weapons Sokka threw my way. I'm ready to start whenever you're ready to use me."

"Did they give you a nice plastic trophy for such a feat?"

Azula throws the girl off balance, and Korra is all about staying balanced. It's her motto, her way of looking at the world. And her new boss devastates her steady feet.

"Uh. No. Just tell me when it's time to kill some zombies."

[X]

That evening, a gang of teen parents and teen zombie slayers play cards in the dirty mess.

Azula smirks. Zuko grinds his teeth.

"Oh, ZuZu, when are you going to learn?" laughs Azula, clutching her cards to her chest.

Jin laughs and nudges the father of her child. "Never."

"I call it," says Zuko, absolutely done with the teasing.

"Show 'em," demands Mai.

They all lay out their cards on the table.

"Royal flush!" cackles Azula. "Hand it all over, ladies and gentlemen!"

Someone walks in and interrupts the groans and laughter, the scraping of vital supplies and fun trinkets across the scratched metal table as Azula claims them.

"Is this a card game?" asks Korra, knocking twice loudly on the open door.

"Why yes," purrs Azula with a smug smirk.

"Can ya deal me in?"

Azula winks wickedly at her. "If you have anything worth losing to me."

Korra pats her pockets. "Will energy bars, cigarettes and a teeny bottle of vodka do?"

"Take a seat," orders Azula.

"What made you Queen of the Poker Table?" hoarsely demands Zuko.

"Birth." Azula smirks as Korra sits down and spreads out her goodies.

Korra wins the night, stunning absolutely everyone in the room. She beams and chuckles as she claims her winnings. No one thought such a brash, bold and impatient girl could be good at cards.

She rises and Azula follows suit. Korra catches a glimpse of her new boss out of the corner of her sapphire eye and strides over her to stand close and fully facing the fearsome zombie slayer.

Korra withdraws a cigarette from a pack she has in the palm of her hand.

"A parting gift," says Korra, twirling the cigarette around her finger and handing it to Azula. "For the former Queen of the Poker Table."

Azula takes it and reaches into her pocket for the blue dragon lighter she found one day when scavenging and held onto as a prized possession.

She lights it, inhales, and softly blows a small plume of smoke right into Korra's eyes.

But the new runner does not even blink.

"I'll see you on the supply run tomorrow," says Korra, waving to everyone and loudly clomping out of the room to snag some rack time.

Ty Lee pouts in the corner as everyone else starts cleaning up the card game to retire as well.

"What?" demands Azula, crossing her arms and glowering at her girlfriend.

"Nothing." Ty Lee averts her eyes, trying not to poke the dragon, but still simmering with rage.

"It was harmless flirting, Ty Lee."

"I… I know." Ty Lee blushes, feeling like a complete and utter fool.

"Jealousy is an ugly emotion. Now, I'm sure Aang is tired of babysitting our little tornado."

"Yeah." Ty Lee knows at least that she shares a child with Azula.

That much ought to keep them together, hot new runner or not.

[X]

New runners always make Azula feel like a parent. It drives her mad every time.

It is the day after the poker game, Aang is yawning into the radio station microphone and Korra is wasting energy parkouring over rocks before they even start the run.

She appears to be more of a ball of energy than Kiyi.

Fabulous.

[X]

"We're heading into Chi No Yukobo territory. They're the most notorious gang of raiders I can think of and they're well organized. Keep your guard up," explains Katara to Korra.

"Yeah. They're who I got rescued from and how I ended up in Republic City." Korra forces a shudder to emphasize her point. "They still have my girlfriend, if she's even alive. They transferred her to another camp. That's why I had to escape."

"Chivalry isn't dead," coolly rolls off of Azula's tongue from behind Katara and Korra. Ty Lee and Mai do not seem to hear the story as they softly chatter (well, Ty Lee chatters Mai's ear off while the sullen teen pretends to be listening) and watch the group's six.

"I love her," snarls Korra, clenching her fists. Katara clears her throat, fairly certain Korra is about to deck Azula in the face.

"What was - is - her name?" asks Katara.

"Asami." Korra says it like the name of God herself.

"That's such a pretty name," sweetly says Katara before stopping in her tracks and staring up.

Certainly Chi No Yukobo territory. Bodies painting in blood with words like 'traitor' and 'coward' snarl and snap, hanging as zombies from tree branches and lampposts.

"I'm going to do some recon ahead. You guys wait here," whispers Katara, clutching her whip and bat as she creeps ahead.

Korra keeps staring up. She raises her crossbow and makes perfect headshots, killing all of the zombies above to put them out of their misery.

"Merciful. I didn't take you for so weak," comments Azula, looking Korra up and down.

"I'm not weak. Did you see those shots? That shit is sick. It's brutality." Korra glares.

Azula shrugs and says, "Sometimes the worst kinds of brutality have their place."

"What place?" asks Korra, speaking quietly for once.

"The place of dead roads," says Azula, drumming her fingers on her gun. "Last stop before Hell."

Korra blinks. "What does that even mean?"

Pause.

Azula shrugs again and glances around slowly for potential sniper nests or scouts.

"I don't know," she thoughtfully drawls. "It's just something my father used to say."

They stand in silence until Katara returns.

[X]

They end up in a massive firefight within twenty minutes, outnumbered four to one.

"Why do raiders always have such awful fashion sense?" calls out Ty Lee as she dodges a blade. She giggles as Azula smirks at her.

Mai takes one down with a throwing star to the eye. "I think it's kind of hot."

Their banter comes to an abrupt halt when Ty Lee screams. Azula mows her way through three raiders as Katara catches Korra, who just suffered a gunshot wound to the arm and gasps for breath, falling into a sudden and dark shock.

A bloody, probably tetenus inflicting sword slashes Azula but she just shoves the raider away and runs to Ty Lee, who clutches the gash to her abdomen and sways on her feet.

One of the raiders sees the zombies shambling towards the commotion and shouts out, "Go, go, go!"

Azula looks up. She wants to follow them, to rip them from limb to limb and let her group deal with the approaching zombies, but she just pulls Ty Lee into her arms and starts running in the opposite direction.

They weave, Katara supporting Korra, Mai keeping the zombies at bay as she watches their back, and finally they settle in someone's fenced backyard. They lost and killed most of the zoms, but a few still try to get through the reinforced fencing.

"Ty Lee, you dumb bitch, focus on me," hisses Azula, brushing Ty Lee's sweat soaked bangs out of her closed eyes. She keeps bleeding, bleeding, bleeding. "Katara!"

"I've got her! Just give me a second!" Katara frantically calls over.

Azula glares daggers as she reaches a long ways and grabs the first aid kit, starting treatment to quell the bleeding.

Mai seems puzzled as soon as she finishes breathlessly checking the perimeter. Azula ignores her and keeps trying to gently wake Ty Lee and control her panicked, terrified state.

"I thought you were going to run after them," says Mai, striding over, kneeling beside Ty Lee and studying the crumpled over Azula keeping her girlfriend's head supported. "Get your revenge."

Azula bites her lip as she wonders if she should share.

She decides it is just Mai; Katara is still tending to Korra's injuries.

"I kept thinking about Kiyi. There was a time I would have followed them and fought and hoped I would pull it out of the fire somehow."

"You had something to die for before," says Mai. "Now you have something to live for."

Ty Lee's eyes flutter open as punctuation to that sentence.

"Are you alive?" whispers Azula.

"Yes," chokes out Ty Lee.

"Prove it," Azula breathes as she leans in and forcefully presses her lips against Ty Lee's.

"Are they always like this?" Korra coughs, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

Katara sighs and crosses her arms. "Yes."

Mai smirks for a flicker of a second.

The girls slowly gather their packs of vital supplies and start figuring out a way around the zombies so they can get back to Republic City.


End file.
